The Cheapest Website Builder in 2024

Wix offers SEO tools on all plans, including its free plan, making it an excellent choice for budget-conscious business owners who value SEO functionality. For users unfamiliar with SEO, the SEO Learning Hub and personalized SEO Setup Checklist help educate them on its benefits and how to improve their site’s search engine performance.

Users can choose from over 900 templates to facilitate the design process, giving it an edge over competitors like Squarespace. Additionally, users with little experience in website design can benefit from Wix ADI (Artificial Design Intelligence), which takes over the entire website creation process from start to finish, requiring only a website description from you.

While Wix offers ecommerce features in its more expensive plans, these features are not as comprehensive as those on Shopify. However, with advanced ecommerce features such as abandoned cart recovery, product reviews, advanced shipping, and multi-currency functionality, Wix still enables you to create an excellent e-commerce platform at a lower price than Shopify.

Wix offers a free plan with a free SSL certificate and reliable 24/7 customer support. Users can unlock advanced tools by upgrading to one of the four paid levels shown below:

• Free – This plan includes 500 MB of storage space, a Wix-branded free domain name, and ads on your website. It allows users to get comfortable with Wix before upgrading to a paid plan.
• Light – This plan offers a free custom domain for one year, 2GB of storage space, two collaborators, automated marketing features, and 24/7 customer support.
• Core – Building on the Light plan, the Core plan features 50GB of storage space, five collaborators, customer accounts, and customized analytics reports. It is the first paid plan to offer payment and e-commerce features such as abandoned cart recovery, multi-location support for up to two locations, and up to 50,000 products.
• Business – This plan includes everything in the Core plan, with 100GB of storage space, ten collaborators, automated sales tax calculation for 100 transactions per month, dropshipping for up to 250 products, and multi-location support for up to five locations.
• Business Elite – This plan includes unlimited storage space, 15 collaborators, automated sales tax calculation for 500 transactions per month, unlimited dropshipping, multi-location support for up to ten locations, product price display in up to 10 different currencies, and priority customer support.

All plans include a free SSL certificate and reliable 24/7 customer support. Wix offers a 14-day trial period for premium plans with a 14-day money-back guarantee if you are unsatisfied with the product.

Wix is ideal for small business owners who want to launch an effective SEO-compliant website quickly. Wix’s AI website builder makes the job smooth and easy, while the myriad template options allow you to create a unique website.

But if you require advanced e-commerce features for your site at a cheaper rate, Squarespace or Weebly would be better options.

Webador offers free web hosting on all its plans. It is AI-powered and comes with over 50 mobile templates for various purposes. A preview feature allows you to hover over each template and see real-life websites created with it, giving builders an idea of what they can achieve. Although the editing features are limited compared to BigCommerce, they are effective.

Webador also provides a range of e-commerce tools. You can edit product prices, discount options, and SEO settings and add special labels for sales or trending products. The e-commerce dashboard includes tools for tracking orders, creating checkout forms, adding tax information, and more. Moreover, the website editor supports up to 12 languages.

While Webador isn’t as e-commerce-focused as Shopify and Squarespace, it is a good alternative. Its features are reliable but not extensive, making it suitable for novices. Experts might prefer more advanced builders like Wix.

Webador offers a straightforward pricing plan, including a free version that provides everything needed to create a basic but functional website. The paid options are reasonably priced for those seeking more advanced tools and features.

• Free – This plan includes unlimited storage, free access to over 100,000 professional stock photos, and AI-powered features.
• Lite – This plan provides one free domain name, a blog function, free web hosting, unlimited data traffic, and a secure SSL connection.
• Pro – This plan features a 1GB personal mailbox, a 10-product limit online store, an ad-free website, detailed analytics information, and custom HTML on your website.
• Business – This plan provides a 10GB personal mailbox, an unlimited product online store, 5GB HD video storage, Google Analytics, a business profile, a search console, and web page password protection.

Only the Pro and Business plans include online store capabilities and advanced tools and features. The free version contains all the features of the Lite package except a free domain name, making it a solid option if you just want to create a free website. In addition, all four price plans include AI-powered features.

Webador is ideal for users seeking an easy-to-use, cheap website builder and hosting package. Its customization options offer users full creative freedom, and the e-commerce features simplify online product sales.

However, while Webador is excellent for its price, it lacks the advanced features available on platforms like Wix and doesn’t match the extensive e-commerce capabilities of dedicated builders such as Shopify and Squarespace.

Shopify provides robust features that help e-commerce business owners of all sizes create fully functional websites. It stood out to me as one of the most affordable website builders for anyone looking for a budget-friendly ecommerce solution due to its comprehensive feature set and competitive pricing.

Unlike many other ecommerce website builders, Shopify offers an all-in-one package that includes hosting, security, and a user-friendly interface, which saves you money in the end. Its value for money is also evident in its extensive library of free and low-cost themes, its robust app ecosystem, and excellent customer support.

Moreover, Shopify’s scalability allows businesses to grow without incurring exorbitant expenses, making it a cost-effective choice for new businesses looking to establish an online presence.

You can also enjoy a fully featured online store with unlimited product capacity and analytics services to track store performance and identify optimization opportunities. You’ll have access to a fully furnished app store for third-party integrations.

For large businesses, Shopify provides custom features such as tailored reports, advanced analytics, and customizable checkout options, making it a comprehensive solution for e-commerce needs.

Compared to other ecommerce platforms, Shopify’s transparent pricing and minimal hidden fees ensure that users get the best bang for their buck with a platform that is both reliable and efficient.

Shopify’s pricing plans cater to businesses of all sizes. Small businesses benefit from features like unlimited product capacity at a low cost, while large businesses enjoy custom options tailored to their specific needs.

• Basic – Shopify’s Basic Plan offers up to a 77% shipping discount, ten inventory locations, localized global selling in three markets, and Shopify POS Lite functionality.
• Shopify – The Shopify Plan provides up to an 88% shipping discount and insurance, five additional staff accounts, API access to Personally Identifiable Information (PII), and access to Shopify POS Pro for an additional fee.
• Advanced – The Advanced Plan includes up to an 88% shipping discount, insurance, third-party calculated rates, custom reports, and analytics, 15 additional staff accounts, and 10x checkout capacity.
• Plus – The Plus Plan is a custom plan for large businesses. In addition to all Advanced Plan features, it offers unlimited staff accounts, fully customizable checkout with 40x capacity, localized global selling in 50 markets, and priority 24/7 phone support.

Every plan includes in-person selling with Shopify POS, 24/7 customer support, access to multiple sales channels, in-depth analytics, and various commerce apps for store customization and product sourcing. Also, Shopify provides a 3-day free trial for users to test its features–no credit card required.

While Shopify offers excellent features for all users, it’s particularly beneficial for small business owners seeking advanced e-commerce tools at an affordable price.

Like, Shopify GoDaddy is one of the best website builder platforms for ecommerce and stands out for its all-in-one approach, combining domain registration, hosting, and website building into a single package. This is great for anyone on a budget, plus it simplifies your website-building process, too.

GoDaddy also ranks as one of the best cheap website builder options that utilizes AI tools to enhance its website building. With GoDaddy Insight, businesses receive tips to improve their online reach, drawing from millions of GoDaddy users. GoDaddy also provides ADI (Artificial Design Intelligence) functionality, a range of templates that can be customized using the drag-and-drop editor, and GoDaddy Studio for creating content.

GoDaddy offers e-commerce functionality like GoDaddy Payments, which allows users to accept credit and debit card payments using PayPal, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Venmo. In addition, you can sell across multiple marketplaces, social media platforms, and even in person.

However, while GoDaddy’s free plan includes an impressive selection of advanced options, its e-commerce features are not as advanced as those of its competitor, Shopify. For instance, Shopify has more ability to scale as well as more flexibility with its extensive app store and customizable features.

Because of this, GoDaddy is better for those starting out or with smaller business needs, whereas Shopify might be better for those looking to launch a larger-scale business and therefore need more robust ecommerce features.

GoDaddy offers a free website builder with enough editing and e-commerce features to give users a feel of the GoDaddy website builder before committing to a paid plan. Paid tiers come in three tiered options:

• Free – The Free plan provides an intuitive click-and-drag editor, free web hosting, email marketing, social media integration, and basic GoDaddy Studio access.
• Basic – Godaddy’s Basic plan features a custom domain with built-in SEO tools, basic blogging functionality, 100 email sends per month, and access to design and content creation tools.
• Premium – This plan includes appointment and booking features, the ability to accept appointment payments, an ad launcher for social media platforms, unlimited social media integrations, and 25,000 monthly email marketing sends.
• Commerce – The Commerce plan comes with 100,000 monthly email marketing sends, POS functionality, and advanced e-commerce features to help users sell products, offer discounts and shipping, and automatically calculate sales tax.

All plans come with a free SSL certificate, and you can test out the paid plan features for seven days without entering your card details. GoDaddy offers great features with its free plan, such as a click-and-drag editor, email marketing tools, and social media marketing tools, which are only available on competitor sites like Wix with their paid tiers.

GoDaddy offers excellent value for business owners seeking an easy website-building experience and strong online marketing capabilities at a friendly price. However, for more creative control and advanced e-commerce options, you should consider BigCommerce or Shopify.

Squarespace includes standard SEO tools like mobile optimization, automatic sitemaps, and image alt text. The SEO panel makes it easy to tweak settings and access checklists to optimize your site for search engines. These tools help artists reach a wider audience without the need to invest heavily in marketing services.

Additionally, Squarespace’s drag-and-drop editor is smooth and efficient, making it easy to create attractive websites quickly. With over 160 templates for various industries, Squarespace offers clean and professional designs, though this selection is smaller than Wix’s extensive template options.

Squarespace also offers integrated ecommerce features that are perfect for selling art, prints, or creative services. Its commerce plans are competitively priced and include essential features such as inventory management, secure payment processing, and customer analytics.

Squarespace’s AI tools assist users in the website-building process. The AI website builder, Squarespace Blueprint, generates custom templates, and the text generator helps create content for text boxes. However, Squarespace’s AI features are not as comprehensive as those offered by Wix or GoDaddy.

Squarespace has a tiered pricing plan with four tiers.

• Personal – The Personal plan includes in-built SEO tools, a drag-and-drop editor, basic analytics, free SSL certificates, and access to Squarespace AI tools.
• Business – This plan offers e-commerce features, advanced website analytics, CSS and Javascript customization, a branded Google email address, and unlimited contributors.
• Commerce Basic – The Commerce Basic plan, focused on e-commerce, features 0% transaction fees, merchandising tools like low-stock labels and product waitlists, and Square POS compatibility.
• Commerce Advanced – Squarespace’s Commerce Advanced plan is designed for large e-commerce businesses and includes advanced shipping tools, abandoned cart recovery, subscription sales, and custom commerce APIs.

Squarespace offers a 14-day free trial, allowing users to explore features before choosing one of the four plans. All plans come with unlimited storage and bandwidth.

Squarespace is ideal for e-commerce business owners seeking advanced tools on a budget-friendly plan. While its cheaper plans provide impressive features that are often lacking in high-end websites, the more expensive plans need more customization and AI-assisted features that are available from competitors like Wix and Shopify.

I chose Square as one of the most affordable website builders due to its transparent pricing and seamless integration with its suite of business tools, including its own POS terminal. With no hidden fees and the ability to start building a website for free, it’s a great option for anyone who wants to scale their online presence as their needs grow. Its all-in-one platform can save you money in the long run as it integrates payment processing, inventory management, and marketing tools. This cuts down on the need for multiple subscriptions.

Square Online also offers SEO support with all plans, helping maintain high rankings for your e-commerce site. It lets you connect to a domain, upload custom fonts, embed widgets, and remove Square branding. Furthermore, you can display real-time shipping rates for the best prices.

Square POS processes most credit cards, including Visa, Mastercard, Discover, American Express, and reward cards, and supports contactless payments like Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Cash App Pay. The seamless sync between Square Online and Square POS ensures all transaction details are always accessible.

Square Online is tailored for efficient e-commerce transactions, making it less suitable for other website-building needs. It also lacks the detailed customization and e-commerce features other website builders offer, such as BigCommerce or Shopify.

Square has a simple and transparent pricing plan, offering a free tier with no set-up fees and two paid tiers.

• Free – The free version includes SEO tools, perfect sync with Square POS, shipping, social media selling, and multiple payment options.
• Plus – Square’s Plus plan offers expanded site customization, advanced item settings, personalized ordering, customer accounts, and a free domain for one year.
• Premium – This plan provides lower processing rates, real-time shipping rates, premium customer support, and waived in-house delivery fees.

All plans include a free SSL certificate and free web hosting, though additional processing fees apply after a sale. The Premium and Plus plans also offer advanced e-commerce features at an additional cost.

Square is ideal for users aiming to seamlessly connect their online and physical sales points. E-commerce sites with physical locations will find Square particularly beneficial. However, if you need more advanced website-building functionality and e-commerce features, Shopify or Wix may be better options.

After my testing, I was quite confident that Ucraft was a solid option for people looking to sell digital products on a budget. Its competitive pricing includes features like customizable templates and secure payment processing, and it also provides unlimited bandwidth and storage, so you can sell your digital goods without additional cost.

Ucraft’s drag-and-drop website builder simplifies the creation process by offering a wide collection of modern, professional templates tailored to various industries, although competitors like Wix offer a larger variety. Its templates are complemented by its website editing features, such as multilingual functionality, HTML and CSS editing, password protection, and custom logo creation.

The dashboard’s SEO tools also help users optimize their website’s search engine performance. However, while Ucraft offers a solid set of features for its price, it lacks the advanced e-commerce capabilities found on platforms like Shopify and BigCommerce and has fewer integration options compared to Wix.

Ucraft has three pricing plans tailored for e-commerce and two plans for other websites.

• eCommerce Starter – This plan is designed for start-ups with a 20-product limit, two inventory locations, multilingual support for 3 languages, abandoned cart recovery, custom checkout, 5 staff accounts, and a visual editor.
• eCommerce Growth – This plan is best for small to medium enterprises with a 500-product limit, 5 inventory locations, unlimited-language multilingual support, multi-currency support, and 10 staff accounts.
• eCommerce Unlimited – This plan is perfect for large enterprises with no product limits, unlimited inventory locations, and unlimited staff accounts.
• Free – This plan is great for testing out the platform and comes with Ucraft Pay, a 5-page limit, a 5-physical product limit, SSL for subdomain, free hosting on Google Cloud, Ucraft-branded watermarks, custom bots, and 1 staff account.
• Website – This plan is suitable for landing pages, blogs, and portfolios. It has unlimited pages, a 5-product limit, domain connection, multilingual support for 3 languages, free SSL certificate, a removed watermark, and 3 staff accounts.

All eCommerce plans offer 0% transaction fees, unlimited pages, domain connection, no watermark, a free SSL certificate, free web hosting on Google Cloud, and 24/7 customer support.

You also get a 14-day free trial, which does not require your credit card details to get started.

Ucraft is ideal for business owners with little experience in website building who need an effective and professional-looking online store. It is particularly great for businesses that sell digital products, like photographs, e-books, and online courses.

However, if you are a large business seeking advanced e-commerce features, platforms like BigCommerce or Shopify may be more suitable.

I was happy to find through my research that IONOS is one of the cheapest website builders available. It offers competitively priced plans that include essential features such as a free domain for the first year, SSL certificates, and email accounts.

IONOS also offers a collection of high-quality website templates that streamline the building process. While the customization options may not be as extensive as those on platforms like Wix or BigCommerce, I think that the templates provided are top-notch. Its AI image and color palette generators ensure impressive results.

IONOS’ integration with rankingCoach helps you optimize your site’s SEO for better rankings, and for those needing more advanced e-commerce features, IONOS includes an online store with options like sizing, tax, and shipping settings, available for a small fee.

IONOS offers two similar but differently-priced plan categories for websites and online stores.

• Starter – The Starter plan includes the IONOS AI Website Builder, a free domain for one year, a professional email address with a 2 GB inbox, 10 GB web space, and up to ten pages.
• Plus – This plan offers a professional email with a 12 GB inbox, 50 GB web space, up to 200 pages, SiteAnalytics, an integrated online booking tool, an AI SEO text generator, and an AI Image generator.
• Pro – The Pro plan comes with a professional email address with active sync and a 50GB inbox, unlimited web space and pages, and SEO optimization with rankingCoach Standard.

Note that the website builder plans do not include an online store, and state and local taxes apply to the pricing. Surprisingly, this platform does not offer a free option or trial.

IONOS is ideal for business owners who need to create an effective business website with an affordable domain. While it offers limited design and e-commerce options, its high-quality features are sufficient for building a functional business website.

However, if you seek more creative control and advanced options, consider platforms like BigCommerce or Shopify.

Weebly offers a comprehensive set of e-commerce features available on nearly every price plan, including the free plan. It also boasts advanced e-commerce features such as unlimited item capacity, item badges for sales, an automatic tax calculator, abandoned cart emails, a shipping rates calculator, and PayPal compatibility.

Additionally, Weebly includes advanced SEO and marketing tools, as well as e-commerce insights, to help increase online visibility. Regarding website building, Weebly features an easy-to-use site builder that simplifies customization. However, it doesn’t offer as many customization options as Wix or Webador.

Weebly has a straightforward tiered pricing system with four plans. These include:

• Free – The free option includes unlimited item capacity, basic e-commerce features, 500 MB of storage, and SEO tools.
• Personal – The Personal plan offers all the features of the Free plan plus a personal domain, pop-up notifications, the ability to sell digital goods, a shipping calculator, and shipping labels.
• Professional – This plan includes all the Personal plan features, unlimited storage, a free domain, advanced site stats, ad and branding removal, and additional phone support.
• Performance – Weebly’s Performance plan offers all the features of the Professional Plan, online payment methods, item reviews, abandoned cart emails, and priority customer support.

Weebly offers a 14-day free that comes with free SSL security. While Weebly has a strong free option, its paid options lack some advanced customization options found in competitors like Wix and Squarespace. However, Weebly’s paid tiers are more affordable than those of e-commerce website builders like Shopify.

Weebly is an excellent choice for small businesses looking to set up an e-commerce website for free or at a lower cost. It’s an easy-to-use platform with solid e-commerce features that can support a business in its early stages until it can afford a more advanced website builder. However, if you have the budget for a more advanced builder with expansive e-commerce and customization options, consider BigCommerce or Shopify.

The one thing that really stood out for me about BigCommerce was its “no transaction fees” policy. If you’re on a budget, this will help you maximize your profits by eliminating extra charges on sales.

I also loved that BigCommerce SEO features are available with all plans, allowing everyone to benefit, regardless of their budget. The platform also automatically optimizes URLs for product and category pages, and users can change URL settings as needed. Additionally, built-in microdata on product pages displays ratings, brands, and prices, enhancing SEO.

Additional features include abandoned cart recovery, which sends reminders to customers about abandoned carts, and POS integrations for seamless online and offline transactions. The multi-currency feature supports payments in over 100 currencies, and real-time shipping quotes provide shoppers with accurate shipping prices.

BigCommerce’s multi-storefront feature lets users manage multiple unique storefronts from a single account, enabling changes to be applied across all platforms simultaneously and syncing their Facebook, Amazon, and eBay store inventories.

BigCommerce offers four paid plans with varying features.

• Standard – This plan features up to three storefronts at an additional $30/month for each storefront, up to four inventory locations, online sales up to $50k per year, online payment compatibility, and a ShipperHQ shipping rules engine.
• Plus – The Plus plan offers up to five storefronts at an additional $50/month each, up to five inventory locations, customer groups, and segmentation, an abandoned cart saver, and a stored credit card feature.
• Pro – BigCommerce’s Pro plan includes up to eight storefronts at an additional $80/month each, up to eight inventory locations, Google customer reviews, and enhanced product filtering.
• Enterprise – The Enterprise plan is a custom plan with unlimited API calls, custom pricing at the SKU level, express routing, and priority customer support.

BigCommerce offers a 15-day free trial to experience its features before committing to a plan. Additional features can be purchased for each plan. Note that the pricing does not include taxes.

BigCommerce is one of the best cheap website builders for large-scale businesses. While its features can also support smaller businesses, the complexity and price point may not be ideal for them. If you’re looking for a more user-friendly, cheap website builder that still offers advanced e-commerce features, consider trying Shopify.